Rents in the Vallejo area continue rising, threatening to eliminate what may be the only relatively affordable housing market in the Bay Area, according to an industry publication’s year-end report.

Having analyzed rents in more than 50 Bay Area cities, RENTCafé found that while “rent growth slowed down in pricey markets like San Jose or San Francisco, the Bay Area’s most expensive cities saw rents decrease,” officials said in an email.

RENTCafé.com is a nationwide apartment search website and a part of Yardi, featuring original city-based research, insights, and in-depth analysis of the real estate market, its officials said.

“Boasting the highest apartment prices in the area, Menlo Park ($3,502) and Palo Alto ($3,530) both saw rents decrease,” they said. “Even the cheapest average rent in the Bay Area (Suisun City with $1,441/month), is still almost $100 more than the national average rent.”

Real estate writer and report author Nadia Balint, described the situation, this way:

“Vallejo, Fairfield and Napa are becoming less affordable as the effects of high priced San Francisco are spreading further out. Increased demand in some smaller markets located outside pricier large urban centers, coupled with little new development, is expected to further affect prices in these areas,” she said.

Solano Association of Realtors President Johnny Walker said this area has been experiencing what the study shows over recent years.

“I think it’s pretty simple and has been consistent the last couple of years. We have very limited housing available, either for purchase or for rent, and as rents continue to rise and remain relatively unaffordable in San Francisco and the East Bay cities, we will see continued pressure on our values and rents in Vallejo and throughout Solano County,” he said.

RENTCafé.com officials said, “2018 is shaping up to be another hot year for the housing market. But to understand the present we have to know the past, right? Analyzing actual rents in more than 50 cities in the Bay Area, we compiled a comprehensive study looking at the rent trends that influenced the nation’s hottest housing market in 2017.”

Some of the major changes RENTCafé.com found in the Bay Area’s rental landscape changed in 2017 include: • The average rent increased by 3 percent reaching $2,602 at the end of 2017. Growing faster than the national average, Bay Area rents jumped 16 percent over the past three years.

• The effect of the hot San Francisco market spread further out into neighboring cities, pushing prices up in Vallejo, Vacaville and Fairfield, places once considered to be the Bay Area version of “affordable.”

• With a more than 6 percent rent increase, Berkeley, Fairfield, and Napa exhibited the fastest growing rents.

With the Times-Herald since 1999, Rachel Raskin-Zrihen has been a reporter, writer and columnist for several print and online publications for nearly 30 years. She is the married mother of two grown sons and lives locally.